Early this year, a 16-minute documentary called “Lost World” was released. The documentary, directed by Kalyanee Mam and produced by Go Project Films, the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, and Heinrich Böll Stiftung, showcases the damage done to Cambodian coastal fisheries by the industrial-scale dredging of sand for sale. Lost World eventually won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Feature Documentary.
Today, the practice has largely been shut down in Koh Kong, the area featured in the film. Unfortunately, sand mining continues in other parts of Cambodia and throughout Southeast Asia. One of the places this dredging continues is in the mighty Mekong River.
Originating in the Tibetan highlands and running through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Vietnam, the Mekong and its tributaries provide water, food and income for 60 million people. The longest river in Southeast Asia is home to the world’s largest inland fishery. It is estimated that 25 percent of the world’s freshwater catch is harvested from this river.
In full: https://theaseanpost.com/article/deadly-cost-sand-mining
